By contrast with the rich social tapestry of The Wings of the Dove – James's leisurely, if critical, unfolding of the interlocking patterns of private aspiration or commitment and communal pressure or support – The Spoils of Poynton presents a far sparser canvas. The structure of the novel is highly formalized, its cast of characters small, and the central problem of the narrative (at first sight) stretched and squeezed in a concerted attempt to produce the highest intensity of dramatic and epistemological interest. However, if this novel is not among the finest of James's achievements, it exerts a powerful claim on the reader's attention, both because it shows the author's restlessly searching thought in process, and because it throws a sharp light on several of his leading philosophical preoccupations. Moreover, the clearly delimited scope of this work makes it easier to move from an examination of James's treatment of the tension between individual development and social enactment or realization, towards a deeper probing of the nature of the self. Because The Spoils is one of James's experimental fictions of the 1890s (and a particularly problematic text, at that), he relies heavily on his technique of shrewdly plotted story-telling to probe and define the contours of individual consciousness. His approach is tentative, yet consistently self-aware, not unlike his brother William's strategy of deploying a sharply conceived narrative to unravel the dense tangles of metaphysical or ethical enquiry. For Henry, the self most revealingly exposes itself not abstractly in accordance with predetermined psychological norms, but existentially: in terms of its aspirations, efforts and damaging miscalculations. Such varying patterns of selective self-expression become the theme of The Spoils of Poynton.